Experimental Fashion Project: WRIGHT

I’m a director and designer, I focus on the vision holistically. My formal training is in graphic design however, I attack design through a much broader lens and am involved in all the moving parts of the operation.

What’s your daily grind?

There are different types of days, most of the time when we are together as a team we are working on the Archive piece, the one-of-one projects. We all arrive early to the studio and set up the machines, each person has their own role but everyone is so creatively diverse our ideas bleed across various roles.

The construction team will focus heavily on building the piece, the visual production team is documenting the process through photography and video mediums and the directors provide the real time feedback to each person to ensure the vision is seen through its completion and is involved in casting models, styling and refining the products. This stage usually takes multiple days and is then followed by an intensive editing process where I work closely with the editing team to direct the video documenting process and updating the website with the various content.

Prior to this however, we dedicate days to collection material and often spend time together as a team, not necessarily actively making anything but discussing ideas which is when most of the pieces are designs are conceptualised.

The whole thing is a platform for our ideas and is structured in a way that allows each person involved to contribute in their own way. The idea started with a conversation about this idea of “the making of”. We had been watching lots of documentaries and videos of things being made, not clothes necessarily, just things. I’ve always had an interest in this idea of the process being more interesting than the end product. Even as a kid I remember watching the special features on DVDs I had where they would show you how the movie was made or the animation was drawn and was intrigued by that and all the people involved.

The idea had started to develop through various conversations with creative people around me and I started to piece together a team. The final conclusion we came to was we were going to build one-of-one garments, document the process of them being made in detail and release them in the form of a raffle.

The name took a few days of ideation and discussion but I basically looked up alternative words for artist and it lead me to the word wright which means ‘maker or builder’ – which embodies the people who make up the team and the people I imagine using the products we create. When I’m thinking about the platform itself I informally seperate it into three sectors – Archive, ready-to-wear and documenting. The one-of-one or Archive concepts are where we are looking at producing a more conceptual product that is almost just an unfinished concept, its a space to test ideas – in an ideal world these would be exhibited in a gallery as opposed to be worn however that makes them even more beautiful. It’s like how car companies build concept cars to exhibit ideas. The ready-to-wear products are products which are in production and make up collections, this is where we tell stories and speak to a wider audience.

The documenting sector is made up of the process videos and a process file which is a digital record of visuals on our website shot on photographic film cameras.

Because we don’t just provide people with a product, we provide them ideas. We work really hard to ensure people come on the journey with us and it doesn’t just end with a piece of material in your hands but the story of how that came about and why it is how it is.

Is this a one man show?

It is everything but that. Its sort of like the Plastic Ono Band where there is a rotating lineup of creatives that we are fortunate enough to call on for specific parts of the projects however there are some core contributors.

My close friend Matthew spends lots of time discussing and planning collections, ensuring things are ordered and the logistics are taken care of and is influential in the early conceptualisation of the Archive pieces. Loki’s core contribution is constructing garments however he is involved in refining and overseeing various other parts of the operation from styling to directing. David is critical in the documenting sector of the operation and is responsible for all the video production.

We are slowly expanding the team and have recently had new people working closely on recent projects who will be credited on the next Archive piece.

What are your thoughts on the trending?

Like I addressed early the actual overarching driver of the idea is sourced from documentaries and behind the scenes videos however stylistically I take influences from quite specific objects and systems I observe around me. I’ve grown to become hyper-observant of design in my surroundings from furniture, signage, technology and especially packaging. I’m super intrigued in design that is purely functional and turning it into something that is purely a form. For example, I’ll take the barcode sticker from a parcel and put it on a t-shirt.

The way I explain it is it’s like taking a fire extinguisher and hanging it at eye level in an art gallery – now it no longer serves the purpose of being a device to fight fire, it draws the viewers’ attention to the graphics, colours and shape. I’m less focused on the things that are trending and more focused on the designers, that’s what’s intriguing to me. I think it’s healthy to see this progression of taking the focus away from brands themselves and consumers being exposed to the life of the designers themselves. Its personal, I like that.

How have you been received so far?

One of the most challenging parts of this project so far has been getting people to understand what we are trying to communicate and we are working really hard to develop a dialogue with our consumers through visuals.

We invest lots of time into being as transparent as possible and this allows us to have a conversation indirectly with people who view the work. We want the brand to be a case study of ourselves where we can analyse our learning process and use that information to move forward. The aim is to influence, I want a kid to see what we do, take that information and apply it.

Being young in the industry; good or bad?

Age is subordinate on the internet and thats where we exist. But the youth will always win.

Rewind a few years back, what would you tell yourself?

People who want to do anything whether it be clothes, cooking, painting, whatever it is, don’t just understand the thing you make but understand the experience the thing you make provides. How do you want to make people feel when they see what you make and work backwards?

I want to close my eyes and when we’ve made one hundred Archive pieces open them again. We are currently working on our debut ready-to-wear collection which is titled Discipline – we are refining the garments and brainstorming heavily in regards to the way in which people will be presented the collection.

We have multiple Archive pieces in the works which will be released as they are completed and people can enter the raffle to win them on our website, they are live for a week and then the winner is contacted.